Ganko Ittetsu is a Hokkaido Sapporo ramen style restaurant in Brookline (318 Harvard St). They serve Miso (味噌/fermented soybean paste), Shio (塩/salt), and Shoyu (醤油/soy sauce) ramens. Currently, their options are dine in and take out. I bought the Shio-Paitan ramen, with chashu (チャーシュー/braised pork belly), ma-yu (マー油/black garlic oil), and a soft boiled egg (味付け半熟卵). The ramen also comes with menma (メンマ/fermented bamboo shoots), hakusai (白菜/napa cabbage), negi (ネギ/green onions), corn(とうもろこし), and nori(海苔/roasted seaweed). The base soup that Ganko Ittetsu uses is a “double soup” of tonkotsu (豚骨/pork bone broth) and torigara (鶏ガラ/chicken broth), giving it a rich and savory taste.

As with the previous entry, Santouka Ramen, Ganko Ittetsu serves their takeout ramen option with the noodles and soup in separate containers; while this is great for being able to reheat the soup quickly, the noodles sadly clumped together for me due to the commute from the restaurant home. With that being said, this was the most affordable ramen so far in this diary, and you get a good value meal since it is very tasty. It doesn’t hurt that the Japanese market is right across the street if you want to get dessert and/or seconds!

Santouka Ramen, which has locations in Harvard Square (1 Bow St, Cambridge, MA 02138) and Back Bay (66 Hereford St., Boston, MA 02115), serves Hokkaido’s Asahikawa Tonkotsu Ramen. Currently, they have dine in, take out, and delivery options; UberEats (delivery and pickup), Grubhub (delivery and pickup), the Santouka website (pickup), and calling in (pickup).

I went with the Shio Tonkotsu ramen, but other options include Shoyu (醤油/soy sauce), Miso (味噌/fermented soybean paste), Karamiso (辛味噌/spicy fermented soybean paste), Gomamiso (ごま味噌/sesame fermented soybean paste), Neginanban (ネギ南蛮/spicy onions and jalapeno), and Vegetarian. The ramen comes with ネギ (green onions), メンマ (fermented bamboo shoots), 木耳 (kikurage) mushrooms, two pieces of チャーシュー (chashu/braised pork belly), an 梅干し (umeboshi/pickled plum), and ナルト(naruto/fish cake).

The broth is relatively thin and light, and savory. Though the division of cooked noodles from the soup in their takeout container creates some sticky noodles, it is overall a tasty ramen due to the great broth. Its proximity to the downtown area is also very nice, though there tends to be long lines to get in.

Oisa Ramen is a 博多 (Hakata) style Ramen store in downtown boston, only a few blocks away from Faneuil Hall (1 3/4 Broad St, Boston, MA 02109). Currently, they have the options of takeout and build-your-own kits through UberEats (delivery and pickup), Grubhub (delivery and pickup), and Seamless (delivery).

I chose to purchase the Tonkotsu ramen, both because it is my favorite broth, as well as for continuity’s sake. Oisa also has a vegan Shoyu option, as well as a truffle Shoyu option. The ramen came with チャーシュー (chashu/braised pork belly), 味玉 (ajitama/seasoned soft boiled egg), 温泉卵 (onsen-tamago/hot spring egg), green onions, 高菜 (takana/pickled mustard greens), and 紅生姜(beni-shōga/pickled ginger); both takana and beni-shōga are a staple specific to ramen from Hakata.

The broth also contains a hefty amount of black garlic oil, which you can add your desired amount (so as much as they gave me). In all, for the $14 price tag, I feel like I got a tasty bowl with a good portion size, and plenty of toppings.

Brooklyn Ramen is a 博多 (Hakata) style Ramen store, which sits in the back corner of the Maruichi Japanese supermarket in Brookline (299 Harvard St., Brookline, MA 02446), has takeout, build-your-own kits, limited dine-in, UberEats (delivery and pickup), Grubhub (delivery and pickup), and Seamless(delivery) options at the moment. The menu includes 塩 (shio/salt based), 醤油 (shoyu/soy sauce based), 豚骨 (tonkotsu/pork short rib broth based), カレー (Japanese curry based) broth ramens, as well as an 油そば (aburasoba/brothless ramen) option. The Maruichi market itself is a treasure trove of snacks and foods that I grew up with, so it serves as a home away from home in the area for me, and I often find myself popping in just to buy pick-me-ups on rainy days.

In this particular visit, I chose to go with the Brooklyn ramen DIY Ramen Kit (Classic Tonkotsu for 2), along with some extra toppings. Here, the noodles are medium thickness egg noodles which you are instructed to boil for 2 minutes; I tend to prefer my ramen to be バリカタ to ハリガネ, or extra hard to extremely hard, so I cooked mine for about 25 seconds (I needed to leave the noodles in the soup while I took photos so I undercooked it slightly more than I would otherwise). I also boiled the tonkotsu broth at the same time to heat it up; once cooked to my preference, the noodles went into the broth in my $10 university student bowl, then did the 盛り付け (arranging the toppings). The kit came with some diced onions (green and red), some corn, 木耳 (kikurage) mushrooms, an 味玉 (ajitama/seasoned soft boiled egg), and a piece of チャーシュー (chashu/braised pork belly). I like to place my onions in the middle and work my way around, so that the pork belly sits at the end closest to me. The only ingredient not included which I added was some ground black pepper and 塩コショウ, a Japanese salt-pepper mix available at Maruichi, H-Mart or Super88.

I found that the tonkotsu broth in the Brooklyn Ramen DIY kit was lighter than other options in Boston; I found this to be familiar and comforting, as my favorite style of Ramen is the lighter tonkotsu broths from Kagoshima, where my family is from. In this tonkotsu, the マー油 (black garlic oil) in the broth accents the sweet flavor of the corn and what I think was a particularly sweet ajitama. The thickness of the noodles matched the thinness of the broth, and chashu is always great. Overall, I really enjoyed this kit; it took less than 15 minutes to make, cost around 15$ for both the soup and noodles (soup is supposed to feed two, but I happened to be craving ramen extra that day), and since you can cook it at your own leisure, you don’t need to worry about the noodles getting soggy or for the soup to be lukewarm when you want to eat.